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Flotation tanks for Copper Mountain Mining Corporation in Princeton B.C. The heavy metals are captured and float to the top.

The veteran mining executive, who got his start in 1972 with the development of the Gibraltar copper mine near Williams Lake and built the Huckleberry copper mine near Houston in 1997, saw some lean years in the early part of the last decade.

Commodity prices were weak, reflecting global demand that did not strengthen until the emergence of China as an industrial and consumer nation.

He tried a thermal coal mine near Princeton, but rail costs to transport it to the coast for shipment to Asia were prohibitive.

He looked at using the coal to fire an electricity generation plant near Princeton and got a 35-year supply contract with BC Hydro, but then the Gordon Campbell government, alarmed about climate change, banned coal-fired power.

That decision did not leave his company, Compliance Energy, empty-handed.

Their proposed site for the generating plant was at the Similco property, a historic copper mine that first opened in 1923 and went through a series of owners before shutting down in 1996.

O’Rourke had been president of the company that shut down the Similco mine.

“We still had the option to buy the property. So we decided to take a quick look at it, to see if it had potential going forward as a copper mine. I had a lot of history with it, as did our vice-president of exploration Peter Holbeck.

“By the end of 2007 we were convinced we had a viable operation.”

Almost immediately thereafter, the world tumbled into a global economic meltdown and credit dried up.

“Our stock went down to 50 cents, something like that. It would have killed us if we had to do a financing.”

But they didn’t. Mitsubishi, a Japanese industrial giant O’Rourke had worked with at both Huckleberry and Similco, advanced funds to keep the revitalization project moving.

“When we bought this mine Mitsubishi came to me right away and said they would like to be part of it. We were talking to others as well, but with Mitsubishi it’s always a handshake, and you’ve got a deal. They’re very solid partners and to me, that’s important. You don’t need a lot of legal agreements if you trust people.”

Eventually, with Mitsubishi as a primary backer and a new name for the enterprise, Copper Mountain, O’Rourke and his team raised $438 million and built a new mine on the old site. It was commissioned in 2011.

They employed 200 workers during construction. Today, operating at full capacity, they employ 310. The projected mine life is 17 years.

Copper Mountain has been a lifesaver for Princeton, which was seeing jobs vanish as the European pine beetle killed its way through the region’s forests.

Like Similco, the Gibraltar mine had been shuttered because of copper prices that were too low to finance a revitalization.

When Vancouver’s Taseko Mining took it over in 1999 the former owner’s plan was to “reclaim it, bulldoze it,” Taseko vice-president Brian Battison recalled.

“It sat in care and maintenance for about five years. They were about 10 people keeping the vital signs going — just keeping it from rusting.”

They reopened it in 2004 when copper prices nudged up, and employed 240 workers for what was expected to be about a 14-month lifespan.

As prices kept rising, Taseko began putting more money in.

“Now there are 500 employees working there. We will have spent by the end of this year $700 million since we opened it in new equipment, new capital, and we’ve got a 27-year mine life stretching out into the future. Barring any worldwide catastrophe in the price of copper, that mine will keep running.

“Imagine what Williams Lake would be like if that place were not operating.”

Taseko’s revival of Gibraltar has been overshadowed by the ongoing controversy over another project near Williams Lake, New Prosperity.

Taseko estimates the $1.5-billion mine, if approved, would create 700 jobs for two years of construction, 550 permanent mining jobs and 1,280 spinoff jobs mostly in the Cariboo region. The initial projected mine life is 20 years.

The catch, and there’s a big one, is that the federal government in November 2010 rejected Taseko’s original proposal to build the mine on the basis of environmental concerns, most notably the elimination of a local lake.

A revised plan has been submitted to federal regulators. The original plan was approved by the province and, in the context of recent announcements by the federal government that it wants to devolve a substantial amount of regulatory oversight to provincial agencies, the final decision could rest with B.C. this time out.

The timing of future mine development is important. Commodity analyst Patricia Mohr expects the bull run for copper to continue for at least a few more years.

Mines opening while it continues can generate profit to quickly pay down their capitalization debts. When prices (inevitably) drop they’ve got lower debt to contend with — leaving them better positioned to withstand a cyclic drop in commodity prices.

That’s the model Taseko used to transform the moribund Gibraltar property into a profitable, modern operation that’s globally competitive.

If B.C. doesn’t move to take advantage it could find itself with relatively little to show from a commodity boom cycle that is already eight years old.

In the last decade, only one greenfield mine has opened in B.C., at Mount Milligan, out of a basket of more than 25 advanced mining projects across the province.

“We have an opportunity here. How do we translate that into mines getting built in British Columbia and what that will mean in terms of real contributions to British Columbia?” Mining Association of B.C. president and CEO Karina Brino asked.

“The advantage that we have is that British Columbia is a beautiful spot to live in. Even in rural communities you could not find a kinder, better environment to call home.

“There is an opportunity to increase aboriginal participation in the mining sector in terms of the makeup of the labour force. There is an opportunity to increase participation of women within the labour force. And especially with recent announcements and recent policy changes we may also have an opportunity to be more effective in recruiting foreign workers.”

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